Dynasty Warriors 9 | A Complete Turnaround

The ninth installment of the Dynasty Warriors series is getting a gameplay overhaul.

With Dynasty Warriors 9, Omega Force and Koei (Koei Tecmo since 2014)—the franchise’s developer and publisher, respectively—will be revamping the series, taking it from a level-based endeavor to an open-world one. Whether or not this will be a positive change for the cult classic hack-and-slash series is unknown, but it is an exciting and interesting change nonetheless, especially since the Dynasty Warriors series has told the same stories repeatedly from title-to-title. No official release date for Dynasty Warriors 9 has been announced.

The Dynasty Warriors franchise, a hack-and-slash series set in China during the rule of the Three Kingdoms (Shu, Wei, and Wu), is comprised of eight main titles with a few spin-offs (Warriors Orochi, Hyrule Warriors, etc.) and expansions (Xtreme Legends and Empires). The games (excluding the first one in the series) are level-based, pitting players and their armies against hordes of enemies in a conflict between the Three Kingdoms.

Since its debut in 1997, Dynasty Warriors has been the most popular and most successful series developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo. The first game in the series, the titular Dynasty Warriors, is a traditional one-on-one fighting game similar to Soul Blade. With the release of Dynasty Warriors 2 (titled Shin Sangokumusou in Japan), the series was transformed into a hack-and-slash with minor elements of strategy. Since its inception, the franchise has sold more than 18 million copies (including its spin-offs).

Before its present form, Koei and Tecmo, two Japanese game developers/publishers, were founded in 1978 and 1967, respectively. A merger of the two companies occurred in 2009, but as of April 1, 2010, Tecmo was considered disbanded while Koei survived and was renamed Tecmo Koei Games. The company officially became Koei Tecmo on July 1, 2014.

OnlySP will be reporting more information on Dynasty Warriors 9 as it becomes available. To stay in the loop, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.